dominate

Etymology 1

From Latin dominātus, perfect active participle of dominor (“rule, have dominion”), from dominus (“lord, master”); see dominus.

verb

1. To govern, rule or control by superior authority or power
2. To exert an overwhelming guiding influence over something or someone
3. To enjoy a commanding position in some field
   Individual mistakes proved costly for Wigan who, particularly after the half-time introduction of Hugo Rodallega, dominated for long periods. October 15, 2011, Michael Da Silva, “Wigan 1 - 3 Bolton”, in BBC Sport
4. To overlook from a height.
   Our arrival at Worcester is heralded by the appearance of the city's cathedral tower, a solid square structure that's dominated the skyline since the 12th century. December 2 2020, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67
5. (computing, graph theory, linguistics) To precede another node of a directed graph in all paths from the start of the graph to the other node.

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Latin dominor (“rule, have dominion”), either from the perfect active participle Latin dominātus, or via phonetic alteration of the synonym dominant, from the present active participle Latin domināns. Compare the pair predominate, predominant.

adj

1. Dominant.
   From the middle of June in 1913 and the first of July in 1914, it became the dominate species, forming 90 per cent. or more of the fauna, and remained so until the end of the season. 1918 August, Thomas J. Headlee, “Effective Methods of Fly Control. A Review of the Factors that Underlie the Problem”, in The Tropical Agriculturalist, volume 51, page 111

Etymology 3

From Latin dominātus (“rule, command”) (genitive singular dominātūs).

noun

1. (historical) The late period of the Roman Empire, following the principate, during which the emperor's rule became more explicitly autocratic and remaining vestiges of the Roman Republic were removed from the formal workings of government; the reign of any particular emperor during this period.
   During the Dominate this tendency was perfected to the point of dirigism in the modern sense, a state-directed society and state-controlled economy, obliterating, once again a prelude to modern times, the laissez-faire climate that had characterized the economic self-determination of the individual under the republic and the Principate. 1973, Karl Loewenstein, The Governance of Rome, Martinus Nijhoff, page 238
   1996, Clare Krojzl (translator), Sebastian Hensel, III: From Diocletian to Alaric [1886, lecture notes], Theodor Mommsen (editor), A History of Rome Under the Emperors, C.H.Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Republished 2005, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), eBook, page 317, The dominate of Diocletian and Constantine differs more sharply from the principate than the latter does from the Republic.
   1997, Thomas Dunlap (translator), Herwig Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples, [1990, Das Reich und die Germanen], University of California Press, 2005, Paperback, page 55, Once someone had attained senatorial dignity by way of the successful tenure of some appropriate magistracy, one of the most important mechanisms of the dominate kicked in: all social rankings and professions were to a large extent heritable.